Like every other blogger with a political opinion, I read Paul Krugman’s essay on economics last week, and tagged it for Saturday’s Links Dump. And while I appreciate Eric Weinstein calling me out as part of the “high end blogosphere,” I’m not sure I have much to say about it that is useful. But, since… Continue reading Beauty’s Just Another Word I’m Never Certain How to Spell
Category: Math
Dorky Poll: Maxwell’s Equations
One of the blogs I hyped at the science blogging panel at Worldcon was Built on Facts, Matt Springer’s blog explaining introductory physics concepts. You might not think that you want to read a blog that goes through freshman physics problems in detail– I would’ve been dubious on the concept, had you explained it to… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Maxwell’s Equations
Change Estimation and the Wisdom of Crowds
The results of the estimation contest are in. There were 164 serious entries (I excluded the $12,000 and $1,000,000 “guesses” from the final data). The mean value guessed by commenters was $83.30, and the median was not far off, at $77.12. The standard deviation was high– $43.10– but as you would expect with a large… Continue reading Change Estimation and the Wisdom of Crowds
Math and the Teaching Thereof
Firday’s quick and sarcastic post came about because I thought the Dean Dad and his commenters had some interesting points in regard to high school math requirements, but we were spending the afternoon driving to Whitney Point so I could give a graduation speech. I didn’t have time for a more detailed response. Now that… Continue reading Math and the Teaching Thereof
Math Is Hard
The Dean Dad slaps his forehead and asks a question: We have anecdotal evidence that suggests that students who actually take math for all four years of high school do better in math here than those who don’t. We also have anecdotal evidence that bears crap in the woods. Why the hell do the high… Continue reading Math Is Hard
Algebra Is Like Sunscreen
Every year around this time, references to that damn sunscreen speech pop up again, as people start thinking of graduations. It’s in the air (Union’s graduation is this Sunday, and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to see the end of an academic year). And, of course, I have actually been asked to give… Continue reading Algebra Is Like Sunscreen
Would You Like Some Calculus With Your Physics?
It’s a nice demonstration of the oddity of the blogosphere that a libertarian political blog has become my go-to-source for thoughtful blogging about physics education. Thoreau had two good posts yesterday at Unqualified Offerings, one on the problems created by breaking down incorrect intuition, and another on the lack of calculus in calculus-based physics texts:… Continue reading Would You Like Some Calculus With Your Physics?
CBS: Polling for the Innumerate
Via Matt Yglesias, a new CBS/ New York Times Poll has been released, accompanied by quite possibly the stupidest graphics ever. The pseudo-pie-chart at right is one of three, all of which have the same glaring flaw as this one. Somebody really ought to lose their job for this. There’s just no excuse for putting… Continue reading CBS: Polling for the Innumerate
Physics Can Fix This
One of the NCAA pools I’m in has a copy of Obama’s bracket entered, and the last I checked, I’m a couple of games up on him. This means I’m as qualified as anyone else to offer a plan to fix the financial crisis, and I have just the plan we need. On the question… Continue reading Physics Can Fix This
The Confusing Display of Quantitative Information
Nobody is ever going to mistake me for Edward Tufte, but whenever I run across a chart like this one: (from Matt Yglesias, who got it from Justin Fox where it was merely one of many equally horrible plots), I find myself distracted from the actual point of the graph by the awfulness of the… Continue reading The Confusing Display of Quantitative Information